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Animals

Austrian police dog recovers severed finger

Surgeons have been able to reattach one of two fingers severed by a circular saw in Austria thanks to the keen nose of a police dog. The search animal was able to locate the unidentified woman's thumb lost in tall grass.

Authorities in Austria say a 51-year-old woman has been reunited with a digit severed in a wood-cutting accident thanks to a police dog who located the thumb severed by a circular saw.

The woman had accidentally severed her thumb and ring finger after getting caught in the machine around 10:45 a.m. Saturday. About 10 people searched in vain for the missing fingers near Esternberg, a town in Upper Austria along the German border.

But a police canine was able to recover the thumb about 15 meters (49 feet) from where she was working at about 1:30 p.m. nearly three hours after the accident. The woman, who had been airlifted by helicopter to a hospital in Linz, underwent 12 hours of surgery as doctors reattached the recovered thumb and repaired her little finger that was also cut by the saw blade.